I hadn’t even opened The Philadelphia Inquirer yet this morning, when I saw this tweet and it’s follow-ups from main editorial writer Daniel Pearson. Mr Pearson wrote, as I have condensed his subsequent tweets:

If you want to know why Kensington ended up being the epicenter of the drug trade, Jones just said it. Can’t have it around the rich folks! Rare to see a politician just straight up admit this rather than going through a whole routine about community input. (No community wants a drug rehab)

If, as he stated, “No community wants a drug rehab (center),” why is Mr Pearson surprised that a local representative would try to stop one?

Councilmember Curtis Jones is working to block a drug rehab center proposed in Wynnefield Heights

Councilmember Jones introduced legislation in an attempt to frustrate plans to build a 300-bed drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in his district.

by Jake Blumgart | Eclipse Monday, April 8, 2024 | 5:00 AM EDT

Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. introduced a zoning overlay bill on Thursday that targets a small corner of West Philadelphia’s Wynnefield Heights neighborhood.

The bill bans medical, dental, health or hospital uses from the area around 3905 Ford Rd., the site of a proposed 300-bed inpatient alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility. Previously the building was the West Park Hospital and then Wordsworth Academy, a residential treatment center for boys with severe behavioral issues.

“The reason is the average property value up there is upward of $300,000,” said Jones, when asked why he introduced the legislation. The neighborhood is full of lawyers, doctors, judges, and retired politicians, he noted.

Jones said a rehab facility would attract drug dealers to the nearby park in hopes of luring inhabitants of the proposed facility.

There’s more at the original.

It’s a bit interesting that the story is listed in the Commercial Real Estate section, and is eight sections down on the newspaper’s website main page, at least as of 11:07 AM EDT on this eclipse Monday, below the primary news section, the Region, Nation & World, Sports, Wrestlemania in Philly, Solar Eclipse, Inquirer Newsletters, and Know Philly.

But at this point, I’d note that the City of Brotherly Love has acted similarly in the past. Last September, in Even in liberal Philadelphia, decent people don’t want the junkies next door!, I noted that the City Council had passed, 13-1, and then-Mayor Jim Kenney vetoed, a bill which banned ‘safe injection sites’ in most areas of the city — Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier’s West Philadelphia 3^rd District was excluded^[1]Philly’s notorious open air drug market in Kensington is not in the Third District. — in which drug addicts could shoot up while knowing that personnel were nearby in case they overdosed or otherwise got into trouble for using drugs. Mr Kenney’s veto was quickly overridden.

Even the liberal Democrats who control the city government understand that their constituents don’t want drug addicts around their neighborhoods.

The newspaper has endorsed the idea of safe shooting galleries — an oxymoron if there ever was one — via the Editorial Board and columnist Mike Newall, albeit five years ago. The professional media have the luxury of supporting ideas that many in the public do not like, but elected representatives are expected to actually represent the will and interests of their constituents. Everyone wants the addicts to be treated and cured; they just want that to happen in someone else’s neighborhood.